MCCULLOUGH Jan

“One always starts work with the subject… and constructs an artificial structure by which one can trap the reality of the subject-matter that one has started from.” – Francis Bacon

Comparing a person with a structure as an apparatus of representation, ’Portrait as a Building’ is a photographic examination of a person’s internal state. Photography is a mechanism for showing things, a device for exposing, yet it is limited in its capacity for description. Shown here is the sculptural equivalent of a person: an exploration of the precarious assemblage that forms private life. Thus the building reveals a more accurate representation than a man’s image on its own.

‘Portrait as a Building’ was awarded the Outstanding Student Work Award by the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts, and is part of the collection of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Portfolio

About the artist

Jan McCullough was born in Northern Ireland in 1991. Her work utilises photography as a medium through which to make intensive investigations of private life. She completed BA Honours Photography at the University of Ulster in 2013, and currently lives and works in Belfast.